HBO Exec Wants to Rename DRM — People have had lots of objections to Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology — centering mainly on its clumsiness and the futility of its anti-infringement rationale — but until recently nobody had complained that the term "Digital Rights Management" was insufficiently Orwellian.

Apple, others draw legal threat over media players — update A California company that makes technology designed to prevent ripping of digital audio streams has accused Apple, Microsoft, RealNetworks and Adobe Systems of violating federal copyright law by "actively avoiding" use of its products.

Out of Chaos, Order. Or So Google Says. — Over the years, Google has carefully cultivated the image of a zany company in which innovation and new products — lots of new products — emerge from a bit of chaos. — Now Google is trying to put some order into that chaos — or at least appear to do so.

Gmail Users are Younger, Richer, Good in Bed — Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the latest stats show that Gmail users skew younger and richer than those on Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. — Gmail opened up to all comers in February, with Gmail's market share of US visits climbing 17% from February 2007 to April 2007.

User data stolen but not unsecured — Hi, we have some sad news, but don't be alarmed... Some people (and yes, we know who) found a security hole on our web site (in fact, actually in this blog). — They have got a copy of the user database. That is, your username and passwords.

Orbitz, the worst IPO of 2007? — We're not even halfway through 2007 and I'm ready to make a nomination for worst IPO candidate of the year: Orbitz. — You may recall that Orbitz - the online travel site founded by five major airlines in 2000 - went public at $26 a share in 2003.

From My Inbox: More Defense Of SEO — I spent about a half-hour today defending SEO privately in an email to someone questioning it. Upon reflection, I thought those responses should go into a public post. After all, the discussion involved Stephen Colbert, the great Jason Calacanis mystery project …